Texas Democratic state senators are calling on Governor Greg Abbott to call a special session to address gun control. They want this to happen ahead of the new school year, which starts in less than two months.
Last month, 19 fourth graders and two teachers were shot to death at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. That led to the governor's call for special committees to take a look at what went wrong and what could be done to prevent future massacres. Nothing on that agenda points to gun control measures.
State Senator Carol Alvarado says the state legislature passed a law to allow the carrying of weapons in a church after 26 people were shot dead at the Sutherland Springs First Baptist church massacre in 2017. They passed a law allowing open carry without a license or background check after 23 people were shot dead at a Walmart in El Paso.
"These tragedies will continue to happen until we pass some basic, basic common-sense gun safety measures. The Florida legislature did so after Parkland. We can too."
State Senator John Whitmire says while he respects the special committee process, "we've studied this to death. It is not complicated. I was on a special committee after Santa Fe. Same dialogue. Same meritless opposition. We went to Midland. We went to El Paso."
State Senator Roland Guitierrez echoes that. "He can have all the special committees he wants. He can do all the roundtables and recommendations he wants. He can talk about school safety all he wants. But we don't get to do anything without a legislative special session."
The senators want the age limit raised to 21 for buying an assault style weapon. The Uvalde shooter purchased two assault style rifles the day after his 18th birthday. They want to institute a red flag law for gun purchases, a 72-hour cooling off period and ban the gun show loophole.
These wishes are not likely to be granted. The Texas Republican Party last weekend held their state convention in Houston. Republican Senator John Cornyn was booed as he tried to speak because he is a lead GOP negotiator on bipartisan gun talks. The party also adopted a resolution rejecting any bipartisan gun deal and rebuking the state's senior senator and other Republican senators for taking part in that discussion.
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